Echo Locator
by jennedy
Summary: "Come on, Ride. I don't know what they did to you, but I can certainly assure you that if you don't suck it up and get it together, neither of us will survive this." Echo and her Colony aren't avians... but they sure aren't normal either. ABANDONED
1. Chapter 1: The Colony

**Author's Note: This is an idea I've been working on, but before I really commit myself I want to make sure people are interested in it. In other words: review or no more will come. :D**

**~Jennedy~**

I rocked back and forth, knees drawn up to my chest, white spikes of hair blocking the view of the bars on my medium sized crate. I knew that Valkyrie, my left wing man, was behind me- dark and silent and brooding to herself, she wouldn't interrupt me once I got in a mood like this. We shared a crate, and she let me have more room than her, though I was smaller. We were both 14, and she knew me as well as I knew myself. My extreme sense of claustrophobia, along with the panic of my Colony being at the School once more, was driving me half crazy. A bead of sweat trickled across my brow, and I shut my eyes tight as a memory flashed behind my eyelids.

_We burst out of our cages, sending Erasers scattering. Sprinting towards the window, we spread our wings to their full extent for the first time in what seemed like forever. I let the rest of the Colony go before me, urging them to go faster and faster. When at last it was my turn, I braced myself on the ledge and prepared to jump. But something stopped me. A tiny whimper, so quiet it would have been unperceivable to the human ear. I whirled around. Lying in a lone cage on top of a counter was a baby. An infant mutant freak, like us. I hesitated, then ripped the lock off his crate, feeling my fingernails snap. Ignoring the pain, I flung the cage open and gently took the child in my arms. He cooed at me softly, his caramel eyes meeting my dark green ones. I fell in love. My Colony was calling me, telling me to hurry, hurry, hurry. I leapt out the window, spreading my ice-white wings and soaring out to meet them. "You'll never live in a cage again," I told the baby boy. "I promise."_

I snapped back to the painful reality of my situation. We had been recaptured. My promise had been broken. Angry tears streamed down my face, the salt stinging the gash that stretched from my right cheekbone, to my chin, down my throat, and ended at my left collarbone. I suddenly was terrified for my Colony, and I lunged forward and pressed myself against the door of my cage. My hungry eyes scanned the small hallway stacked with crates.

Abe, the 7 foot wonder, got his very own crate simply due to his gargantuan height. His crate was directly to the right of the one I shared with Valkyrie. Though Abe was two years older than my 14 years, he had somehow been bypassed as a leader-of-the-team candidate, leaving the job to me. Like he always did to make himself feel at home, Abe had spread his giant, silvery-black wings out as far as they would go- (not very far, in this case)- and enclosed himself in a sort of wing-canopy. All I could see was wings and a bent head of curly brown hair in his crate.

I looked across the hall. Directly in front of me was the crate shared by Blaze and Jagwing. Blaze, who in a normal situation would have been jabbering his head off and yammering my brain out of my skull, was perfectly silent. We had decided a long time ago that he must be of some sort of Asian descent; he sure looked like it. His black hair was knotted into 1 inch thick, round dreadlocks, of which he was ecstatically proud. (Though it is hard to be ecstatic when locked in a dog crate in a school full of evil white coats). Blaze was 8, and a total pyro when he got the chance. His rust-colored wings, though folded tight against his back, were aching. I knew because his face was scrunched up in pain as Jagwing slowly pressed his long, thin fingers against them.

Poor Jag. He's only 11, but he got the brunt of the bad test runs. When we were still really young, even before we busted out for the first time, Jag had surgery on his throat. The whitecoats were trying to "improve his echolocation" or something. (On a side note: Yes, we can echolocate. Deal with it.) But the surgery failed, and all of a sudden, Jag couldn't echolocate OR talk. Then, an Eraser grabbed him by his right wing, and pretty much mauled the bottom of it. One of his beautiful, crème colored wings is jagged. (Hence his name.) But he's okay. He manages by overcompensating with one wing to make up for his bad one. Being upbeat and optimistic does have its perks. Jag was rubbing Blaze's back gently, angrily brushing his bush of crème hair out of his eyes once every ten seconds. Jag usually has a pair of old-fashioned, Amelia Earhart style aviator goggles that he either wears the correct way when flying or pushes his hair back with. Unfortunately, the whitecoats don't tolerate aviators. Sheesh. Blaze noticed me looking and smiled broadly at me, then winced as Jag poked a tender spot. I gave a half hearted grin back, then checked on the rest of my Colony.

On Jag and Blaze's left (my right, as I was across the hall) was Liam and Stella's cage. I peeked over, only to have my heart drop to my toes. Liam wasn't there. _Where is he? _I mouthed to Stella frantically. She closed her big gray eyes and focused. _They're almost done with him, _she mouthed back. Stella has a strange ability, one that sometimes freaks me out, even though I love her to death. She just "knows" things about us. If someone's sick or hurt, she knows. Stella can always tell me where any person in the Colony is at any given time. So if Liam was in danger, she would tell me. Of course, we were all in danger now. Stella was huddled in the back corner of her crate, her wings wrapped protectively around her. She looked a lot like Abe, her older brother, though she was not nearly as tall for her age (which was 6) as he was for his. Stella had Abe's curly brown hair and silver wings, but hers were more silvery powder gray than silvery black.

Four M-Geeks marched down the hall, dragging Liam between them. I could immediately tell he was okay, because he was struggling and cursing like a pirate. They opened his crate and chucked him in like a pile of dirty laundry. Carefully pulling himself off of Stella, he saw me staring and sat at the front of his cage, smiling wearily. I let out a relieved sigh. Liam, who was also 14, was my right wing man. His thick, chocolate brown hair, which was usually long and tied back in a ponytail, had been cut to his jaw line. Liam tousled his hair with one large, tan hand and grinned sheepishly, his dark eyes sparkling despite our circumstances. Liam was brawny like a football player, and though not as tall as Abe, he still towered over my 5'3'' at 6 feet even. His wings, which were the same color as his hair, were tucked in almost to his back.

I turned again and pounded myself against the left side of the cage to check on the last member of my Colony. There he was. My baby, Broda, only one and a half years old. His wavy golden brown hair was actually clean for once, having been washed thoroughly by the whitecoats. He was in his own crate, but a divider had been put up in the middle of it, so he didn't actually get much space. Broda was crying silently, tears streaming from his caramel eyes. A lump grew in my throat. I had always drummed the virtues of silence into his head, knowing it would save his life time and time again. Bro pressed himself against the bars and stared at me, his wings raised in a sad salute.

"It'll be okay, baby," I whispered, speaking for the first time since they started electrocuting us when we talked to each other. "It's okay."

I played a game with myself, in my head, of course, as I leaned back against the bars of my cage. WWMRD, or What Would Maximum Ride do? I knew all about the Flock, the human-avian hybrids with bird wings. I knew that she was on a mission to save the world; she was just about all Jeb Batchelder talked about as he stuck needles in my arms. But even I didn't know how she would get her Flock out of a situation like this. Besides, we were no angels. I reached over my shoulder and rubbed the muscle where my wings were grafted to my back. I extended my wing as far as it would go, stroking the sinew and bone that were clearly visible under the skin, which was covered in a light layer of white fur. I cut my finger open on the white piece of bone that jutted out of one of my joints, just to make sure it was still sharp. We weren't angels, my colony and I- we were _bats._


	2. Chapter 2: The Blackmail

**Author's Note: Consider yourselves lucky, folks. Today I've had enough time to update again. This is a rare occurrence. Do not get used to it! *evil glare* And please review. Those things make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :D**

**~Jennedy~**

A perfectly muscled arm burst into my crate, deftly dodging Valkyrie's attacks and closing around my ankle. I hooked a hand through the back of my cage, holding on for all I was worth as the robot tried to yank me away to more horrible tests. My whole Colony was yelling and rattling their cages, agitating the other less stable mutants into a frenzy. I gritted my teeth and kept my fingers firmly locked in the wire as the tension on my body increased. Suddenly, the robot switched his grip, moving its other hand to my shoulder. It tugged sharply, sending a loud crack ricocheting of the white tiled floor. I screamed and briefly relaxed my grip, giving the robot the perfect opportunity to yank me from my crate. One of its companions locked the crate firmly behind me just before Valkyrie threw herself against the bars. With another calm tug, my captor snapped my shoulder back into socket and proceeded to drag me off down the hall.

"ECHO!" Liam bellowed, his voice sounding far away.

I tried to reply, but a hand was clapped over my mouth. We went through a door and down another hallway, taking us deeper and deeper into the belly of the School. I snarled and tried to club my guards with my wings, but to no avail; they certainly were not going to let me go. We turned another corner and a robot slammed open a door. The whitecoats inside looked up as if pleasantly surprised to see their favorite little bat recombinant. A feeling of dread seeped into my stomach as I saw the materials they had laid out: an IV bag, a needle, and several bad-looking syringes filled with black mystery liquid.

Following orders from the scientists, my lovely robot friends pulled me over to a hospital bed and lashed me to it with thick, leather restraints. My arms were pinned away from my sides, palms facing out. A whitecoat pushed a button and the bed rotated, grinding to a halt when it was perpendicular to the floor. I gulped down my fear and decided that maybe a little bit of insolence would get me some answers.

"Hey eggheads!" I cried, earning some peeved looks from the whitecoats. "Where's my man Jeb?" A whitecoat nervously adjusted his glasses.

"Dr. Batchelder will not be joining us today."

I pretended to consider this. "So, like, he didn't feel like watching my body react to your potions, or he didn't get the invite?"

No answer. I smiled girlishly. "You know, I could always sing for you…"

"Just tell her, Thompson!" snapped another scientist. "Don't let her start singing. She makes Ashlee Simpson sound like an angel sent from above!"

"I'm not _that _bad!" I protested.

"Yes, I-I'm afraid you are," Thompson stuttered. "Dr. Batchelder was not notified of this procedure."

I stopped to think. If Jeb hadn't been told, what they were going to do to me had to be totally and completely inhumane. Dread settled in my gut.

The whitecoats had finished rigging the IV, and a particularly dorky one approached me cautiously with the needle and a roll of medical tape in his hands. I clicked my teeth at him, laughing as he jumped nervously. But he finally worked up the courage to make his way to my right arm and stab the needle into the inside of my wrist. I flinched. Like usual, he spent about 10 seconds staring at my arm in wonder. Every new scientist ended up doing something like that, because my fantabulous genetically enhanced skin was so pale and translucent that pretty much every major vein could be seen through my skin.

"Come on. Is this seriously the first time you've seen an arm?" He frowned at me, miffed. Then he stepped back and rolled the IV stand closer to me. I groaned as I saw the black liquid roll down the tube and into my wrist. A painful feeling not unlike the one you get when your foot falls asleep spread up my arm. I closed my eyes briefly. So that was how it was gonna be.

"What do you want from me? Can you just tell me now and get it over with?"

Thompson smiled maniacally, switching on what looked like a baby monitor and placing it on a table near me. "We don't want anything from you, girl. We just want you to yell nice and loud for your Colony."

I bit my lip as pain flooded my body. Oh God. Oh God.

Thompson moved closer to me, hissing in my ear. "Scream, Echo. Scream."

I woke up with my head throbbing. My whole world was lurching from side to side, and I felt myself unable to get a grasp on my thoughts. As I slowly opened my eyes, a woman in a white lab coat bent over me and fiddled with something at my wrists. Wait- there were _zip ties _on my wrists! What kind of sick person would-

All of a sudden I remembered. I was Maximum Ride. I was saving the world. And now I was bouncing around in the back of a van, bound tight and clueless as to where I was going and where the Flock was.

"Hey!" I yelled, my tongue like a dry leather strip in my mouth. The woman looked up. She had golden brown hair that had been acting as a curtain over her face, and for good reason. As I took in her features, I winced. The skin was blotchy and covered with burn marks and scars. Her left eye was covered in a black eye patch, and I could see even more raised white abrasions going beneath it. She saw me staring at her mutilated face and glowered.

"Maximum Ride," she said, her voice hoarse and croaky.

"Who wants to know?" I answered crabbily. She sat back on her haunches and peered down at me superiorly.

"You have been requested for an assignment," the woman went on, ignoring my sarcasm. "You will follow all instructions or there will be consequences."

"Where's my Flock?" I screamed, not wanting to hear about any damned consequences. She shook her head, tsking under her breath.

"Max, Max, Max. To think Jeb always thought so highly of you. I can see it will be hard for you to comply."

"Got that right, lady," I quipped. "Any other brilliant realizations surfacing in that big ol' head of yours?"

"You will do what I tell you to do, Max," she said calmly. "Or I'm afraid Angel might have to visit my partners specializing in brain surgery. They're just dying for a sample of hers."

My heart dropped to my toes. Angel. They had Angel. I tilted my head as far as I could in all directions, hoping she wasn't there, hoping it was all some cruel trick. But there she was, lying limp and motionless on the ground, her blond curls mussed and dirty.

The woman had a cell phone in her hand, preparing to dial a number. "Shall I notify my colleagues to prepare for surgery, Max? Or are you willing to do me a little favor?"

Angry tears filled my eyes, though I refused to let them fall. Turning away from her, I closed my eyes… and nodded.

Liam huddled agitatedly in the front corner of his cage. He had a horrible feeling about Echo. Worry twisted in his stomach. What were they doing to her? Sometimes, when they took her away like that, she came back almost comatose. That was when he wanted to throttle the whitecoats. He could clearly imagine himself bursting out of the crate and disemboweling a feeble, puny scientist with his wing-thumbs. But every time he tried, the reinforced metal door stopped him short. Anger blazed in his mind.

Suddenly, a noise clicked into eardrum. As a bat hybrid, he and the others had advanced hearing far out of the human range, and even Jag, who could no longer echolocate himself, could pick up tiny sounds from very far away. The Colony was silent as the footsteps grew closer.

It was a woman in a white labcoat. She was tall, with a mane of golden-brown hair tied back in a ponytail. Her face was scarred, and she wore a black eyepatch. Liam's mouth fell open. How was this possible? She was dead… Wasn't she?

"Hello, children," the woman said, her voice sarcastically sweet. "How are you this fine day?"

"Amy?" choked Liam. "What- How-"

She smiled at him, which had a very frightening affect considering her ruined face. "Oh, Liam. I know it's hard to accept that I was with them the whole time. But it was my assignment to look after you, just like it was Jeb's assignment to look after the Flock. For a time."

Liam was stunned into quiet as easily as if she had buzzed him with a baton. Amy Jenkins had freed the Colony from the School 4 years ago, and raised them. Liam had thought she had died in the forest fire that destroyed their house in Northern California. But apparently… he had been wrong.

"Wat in de name of Gawd happened to yah face?" Blaze asked, his bizarre accent sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Blaze, darling, the fire was staged by my coworkers to help me get out of your company," Amy explained as if talking to a two year old. "But I got trapped in the upper levels. I survived, but barely." She grinned. "Did you miss me?"

"I thought I did." Stella's voice as broken and hurt. She had been 2 when Amy "died," and still had nightmares about the fire.

"Aww! Poor baby Stella!" Amy mocked condescendingly. Rage built in Liam's throat. He couldn't believe he had trusted her.

"Does your husband know you turned into such a bi-" Liam caught Valkyrie's angry look and paused in mid-sentence. She gestured to Blaze and Stella. No need to teach them new words. "I mean, does he know you turned into such a… umm… banana head?"

Amy caught the implied cussword and scowled at him. "Jeb Batchelder doesn't even know I'm _alive!_" She saw Blaze about to insert a witty retort and spat, "Shut the hell up, you freaks! I actually came here for something, you know. And it's something you might want to hear."

She switched on a small, black device resembling a baby monitor and held it in her hand expectantly. A crackling voice came through the line. _"Come on, mutant. Scream or we might just have to double the dose!"_ Someone groaned quietly, fighting to keep their voice low. _"We won't give you a band-aid if you bite through your lip, Echo."_ Liam slammed himself against the cage. Echo. Echo was being hurt. Foul cursing came out of the monitor. _"Someone get a napkin, the stupid thing punched through its lip!" _Liam snarled, muscled hands straining against the cage door. _"Get another vial. We need to strengthen the stuff or she'll never crack." _There was a pause. Then a slow, drawn out scream. _"There we go, girly. Tell your friends just how much it hurts." _The scream cut off. Echo's strangled voice blared out of the speaker. _"No, no! Don't listen to me! Don't listen to-" _she shrieked again.

"STOP IT!" Liam yelled. "Stop hurting her!"

Amy bent over and looked him right in the eyes. "If you want them to stop, you have to agree to a little something." Echo's screams reverberated down the hall, making hairs stand up on the back of his neck.

"What?" he whispered. "What do you want?"

"You will go on a recruiting trip," Amy said. "You will do whatever you are told to do. And you will come back here when the assignment is done, with no complaint and no rebellion. Do I make myself clear?"

_"Tell Liam how much it hurts, freak," _spat a whitecoat. _"Don't listen to them!" _Echo screeched. _"They can't tell you what to do-" _her voice broke off into another yell.

Liam felt pain of his own stab at his heart as her screams went on. He wanted to obey her, but he couldn't. He couldn't just sit there and listen to her suffer.

"I'll do it," Liam whispered.


	3. Chapter 3: The Assignment

I was still sitting in the van, though I was no longer bound. Angel had been removed from my sight immediately after I agreed to whatever hell Captain Eyepatch had planned for me. I tried thinking extra loud, just in case Angel had woken up and could hear me. But the van was moving. She was not in it. I doubted I was in range.

About two hours after Angel was unloaded like a piece of luggage, the van got a new passenger, looking perhaps even more downtrodden than me: A guy about my age. He was tall and extremely tan, with thick brown hair. He sat in the seat next to me, not looking up, lost in his thoughts. His large, knife-scarred hands were curled into fists in his lap. I stiffened when I saw the two long slits cut in the back of his white shirt.

Was he another avian recombinant? I knew there were other experiments; we had freed some before. But none of them had seemed quite as, well, sane has he did. He noticed me staring and put his head in his hands, speaking in muffled tones.

"What did they have to do to get _you_ here?" he said.

I laughed awkwardly. "Only blackmail me with the little girl I practically raised."

He smiled sadly, and I got the feeling that he was usually a cheerful guy. "That sucks."

"Yeah. Pretty much," I said, trying to make myself more comfortable against the hard, plastic seat that had been installed in the side of the van.

"I didn't know there was anyone else… You know, like us," he said, studying my back.

"You mean… You really have them? Just like mine?" I whispered, gesturing to the slits in the back of his shirt. He smiled and nodded. I carefully unfurled one of my wings, sliding it through the slashes in my own shirt and raising it above my head in all its feathered glory. His mouth dropped open, and I watched nervously as his eyes soaked in the brown and white feathers.

"I didn't… I didn't think…" he muttered, too shocked to form words into intelligible sentences.

"What?" I snapped, and yes, I'll admit it, I was slightly angry. I'm not a vain person, but having someone gasp and gag over my wings (which I believe to be my best feature) was a little much, even for me.

He looked at me strangely out of the corner of his eye. "Are… Are you Maximum Ride?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What's it to you?"

"I'm sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "I didn't mean to be rude. My name's Liam."

"Hola, Liam. Me llamo Max. _What the hell is going on?_"

Liam held up his hands in self defense. "I'm as lost as you are. But, Max… I've heard stories about the avians. Ridiculous things."

"Like what?" I asked suspiciously. Most people who had heard about us wanted to kill us, or use us for irritating government projects.

He lowered his voice even further so that I had to lean in to hear him. "You and your Flock totally destroyed the Itex plant in Germany. Your father is Jeb Batchelder. Your half-brother is Ari, who is expired. You saved your mom from Mr. Chu. You-"

"Okay, okay, I believe you." I frowned. "Where did you get all that stuff about… Jeb?"

"Jeb works on Echo a lot. He talks about you. She says you're his pet project."

"Echo? Who's that?"

Liam looked at me. "She's our leader. Like you, but with us."

"Liam, you're not avian." He nodded. I had guessed as much. "Then why do you have wing slits?"

"We're Chiros." When I glanced at him with a blank expression, he winked and elaborated. "Bats, Max. Bats."

I think my eyes popped out of my head right then and there. I didn't know if I believed him or not, but then he two sleek, brown wings out of his t-shirt and held them aloft. Whoa. I've always leaned towards feathers over fur, but they were pretty spectacular. They were bony and slightly leathery, with a five-inch-long spike of bone jutting out from the joint of each wing. I tentatively reached out a hand, and when he didn't slash my throat open with the bone-claw thingummies, I stroked the wing, marveling to myself.

"There are… more of you?" I choked.

For the next hour and a half, he told me about the Colony. They were surprisingly similar to us. I couldn't believe I had never known about them before. What other secrets had Jeb been keeping from me? Liam was equally interested in the Flock. He had only heard whispered legends among mutants about the flying bird-kids, so he was pretty skeptical about the whole "saving-the-world" idea.

Finally, Captain Eyepatch decided to show up again. Liam, who had been in the middle of an interesting story involving Blaze, an ancient wooden relic, and a box of matches, tensed up immediately and went for Eyepatch's throat. It took four M-Geeks and several whispered threats to get him to stand down. Inwardly, I was rejoicing. A little blackmail wasn't enough to get him down. Maybe we could get out of this mess after all.

"Amy!" he yelled at her. I stared at Liam. He had never mentioned _knowing_ our captor. "You're such a-"

"Maximum Ride," hissed Eyepatch, cutting him off.

"Reportin' for duty, Cap'n," I barked back, military style but with a slight touch of an English accent.

She turned bright red with rage, the sudden coloring not doing much to improve her scarred complexion. "Track Eleanor Garrett until you see an opening to trap her. Then, take her by force and bring her to the parking lot of the Nashville Adventure Science Center. The van will be waiting for you. We will give further instructions from there." Eyepatch pressed a scrap of paper with an address on it into my hand.

"Aye aye, Cap'n," I replied, keeping a straight face. I watched with barely suppressed glee as she struggled to stop herself from smacking me and turned quickly to Liam.

"Liam. Accompany Maximum Ride and aid her as best you can." Liam, who had by now picked up on my joke at Eyepatch's expense, gave a guttural, cockney "Aye aye."

She didn't like that at all. I had a feeling she was getting tired of her Pirate Queen status. She got up in Liam's face, practically blowing smoke out her nostrils. "Listen, kid. A single word from me, and Echo gets it. Understand?"

His face went serious and he shook his head yes. My heart sank. Eyepatch totally had him under her thumb. Then again, she had me under her thumb to, so I shouldn't say anything. A M-Geek kicked open the door of the van and shoved us out into the glaring sunlight. I immediately started to spread my wings, but he grabbed my elbow and walked me away from the van. I decided to obey, seeing the grim look on his face. We got to a jumble of trees, and he let me take off as soon as we were hidden from view.

_A robot slammed the van's doors shut as soon as the two mutants took off. Amy Jenkins smirked to herself, sliding her fingers under the black patch to massage the empty socket. Just the thought of Liam and Maximum Ride kidnapping a child sent her inner Joker into maniac giggles. Jeb Batchelder was too good to his avians… Well, at least her chiropteric recombinants would never get so out of control. Amy knew them as well as she knew Jeb Batchelder- very, very well. With a firm hold, and the proper 'persuasion,' Amy was sure they would be unstoppable. As she floated away on the daydream, one of her partners, a suspiciously good-hearted man named Evan Allen, coughed quietly. Amy whirled to look at him, a lecture on the tip of her tongue. But the idiot man actually began to speak._

_"Dr. Jenkins… May I ask something of you?"_

_She rolled her good eye obnoxiously. "If you must, Allen."_

_"Why didn't you just force Maximum, Liam or Echo to do the job alone? Any one of them could have done it by themselves."_

_Amy laughed coldly, remembering exactly why she _hated _interns. "Well, Mr. Allen, this is a good example of why I am in charge and you are not being paid. I need to make them squirm. Echo hates being thought of as a weakness, especially someone else's. Maximum needs a little bit of corruption for her character. And Liam?" She snorted, flapping a hand dismissively. "He was just caught in the middle."_

"Eleanor Garrett," I murmured, loud enough so Liam could hear me. I squinted at the paper Captain 'Patch had given me. "The address says, _884 Orchid Lane, Nashville, TN._ Mean anything to you?"

He shook his head. "Can I see it?" I handed him the paper, carefully trying to avoid clubbing him with a wing. He stared at it for a few seconds, then flipped the sheet over. I blushed crimson. The other side showed an aerial photograph of the area we were in, with an x-marks-the-spot over one house. Unlike Fang or Nudge, or any of the Flock for that matter, he didn't make a sarcastic joke about my air-headedness. Liam merely ran his hand through his hair anxiously and doubled back to fly a circuit high over the network of roads. From this altitude, we looked like large birds more than anything else, so until we descended, I thought we were safe from prying eyes.

I saw the house first. It had red, terra cotta shingles and a large lawn, but didn't look extremely fancy from above. Liam noticed it too, and circled down over it. Just as we reached about 500 feet, my raptor vision detected a small, 3-person family getting into a car. They locked the door behind them, so I knew that they were the house's only inhabitants.

"Let's follow them," Liam declared, and we redirected our course to follow their white minivan. We actually had a slightly difficult time picking out the minivan from time to time, as many families tend to own similar cars. Right when I was about to suggest turning around and trying to follow a different van, the car pulled into a large park entrance and stopped. Liam and I landed neatly in the higher branches of some nearby trees, well out of sight.

The family consisted of two parents in their early thirties and a tiny, brown haired girl about 2 years old. As the woman set up a picnic on a bench nearby, the man and the toddler ran across the field, laughing happily. After every few steps, the girl's chubby little legs gave out, and she fell smack on either her butt or her face. Every time she fell, she bounced up happily and continued to playfully toddle away from her father.

At this point, I assumed that the woman was Eleanor. She had that secretive, mysterious look that most escaped mutants develop over time. I wondered how long she had been hiding from the School. Long enough to have a kid, obviously.

Suddenly, Liam drew in a sharp breath. The man had turned back and was heading towards the woman again, calling for his baby to follow him. "Come on, Ellie. Time to eat!" My stomach lurched. Ellie. Eleanor. Eleanor Garrett. Captain Eyepatch wanted us to kidnap a baby.

Liam's face twisted into an extremely pained expression. He knew Max was thinking the same thing he was, with very slight differences: Echo, or Ellie. Echo, or Ellie. He was torn to admit it, but he chose Echo. Hands down. No matter what they did to Eleanor Garrett, he couldn't let Echo get hurt. Max felt the same way about Angel, and she wasn't happy about the new job development either.

"Go over and talk to those people," he whispered. "Distract them."

"What should I say?" she asked, still agonizing over her decision.

"Ask them for directions to the Nashville Adventure Science center." Max rolled her eyes. "It's not like we know where it is, and we do have to meet them later."

Max dropped out of the tree smoothly and walked towards the picnic table, trying to appear as lost as possible. Eleanor was still playing in the grass by herself about 10 yards from her parents. As Max addressed the Garretts, Liam wondered if he should go for stealth or speed when snatching the child. He decided on speed. They probably wouldn't recognize his face if he was going fast enough.

Liam dove out of the tree, using his impressive wingspan to aid gravity in forcing him towards the ground. A split-second second before impact, he strained against the pillow of air under his wings and pulled up, snatching Eleanor off the ground like a bird of prey. As Liam strained to gain altitude before he was seen, Ellie recovered from the shock of flying and screamed, "MAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Trapping her in the cage of his strong arms, Liam clapped a hand over her mouth to cut off her scream, but the damage was done. On the ground, the Garretts looked around frantically for their daughter, forgetting all about Max and shouting Eleanor's name. Max slunk away quietly, then spread her feathered wings and flew up to join Liam and his prisoner. The little girl was still struggling madly, but there was no way she could get away from him; Liam knew from experience that he could hold a grown Eraser motionless in a bear hug like this one, and the little girl was obviously nothing against an Eraser.

Liam closed his eyes tightly as he felt tears dribbling down Ellie's face. Why was he doing this? The atrocity of his actions stunned him. He felt like a criminal, and with a little fur and some claws, he would be as bad as an Eraser. Liam imagined Amy standing next to him in her current derelict state and flinched inwardly. But then he saw her kissing baby Stella goodnight, and cooking breakfast, and teaching the little ones to fly. Liam shuddered. Had that all been a lie to get them to trust her?

"At least this'll all be over soon," Max said quietly. He nodded. "I- I found out where the Adventure Science center is."

"Good," he said. "Let's go."

Max followed the Garrett's directions to a large, modern building with several glass pyramids on top. She and Liam landed and searched the crowded lot for the white van. Liam set Ellie on the ground, keeping a tight hold on her tiny hand. She was too scared to cry, now, and had become a constant weight tugging on his arm. He hurried her along, afraid someone would recognize her and start yelling questions.

Liam found the white van and rapped sharply on the passenger's side window with his free hand. It rolled down to show the bored, scarred face of Amy Jenkins.

"Ah. Good," she said, noting the kid Liam was dragging behind him. "Get in."

They obeyed, handing Eleanor to a whitecoat and strapping themselves into the hard, plastic seats. The van started moving, and Amy turned to look at them. "You're done for now, mutants. We'll be returning to the lab shortly. I'm sure your respective bands of freaks have been worried about you."

Max was about to make a good comeback when a glass wall rose up between the whitecoats and her. She looked at Liam, puzzled. He shrugged, then stiffened. White mist had started to pour out of two vents in the ceiling. Liam felt dizzy, even though he was seated. Stars danced before his eyes, and he suddenly felt very tired. Then the world imploded into blackness.

**Author's Note: *sigh* Not as good as the other ones, but it had to be hammered out. I'm gonna warn you now, I've already started to have writers block about the next chapter. To encourage me, review! Please, guys. I love reviews. They are awesome. ******

**~Jennedy~**


	4. Chapter 4: Return

**Sorry for the wait on this one! If I could get even MORE reviews, that would be awesome. You may think what you have to say isn't important, but every bit of critique helps me make future chapters even better. I'd like to acknowledge the following readers for their reviews: IwriteUread, , The-Winged-One, Charlene Ryder, Aimee, and SmartA55. Thanks for your help.**

**~jennedy**

I sat in my crate. Silent. Docile. Waiting for my prince charming to come back and whisk me away.

Haha. That was a joke. Get it?

I'm just going to get this out there now. I was _furious_ at Liam for going. If the whitecoats had wanted me to know what they made him do, I would have known, but at this point I was totally in the dark. I had the sinking feeling that the chore hadn't been a trip to the grocery store. He had probably agreed to something he hadn't expected just to stop me from, well… Dying of illegal poison testing? That's what the black stuff had been. They gave me an antidote after Liam agreed to their demands, but I was still in pretty bad shape; the black liquid had shown right through my super-translucent skin, leaving weird, spidery black webs all over my body. In the major veins, it had washed away pretty quickly, but in some areas it still clogged up my capillaries.

The point is, I was in a pretty sticky situation. But I would have found another way. I know I would have. And he had to go all noble on me and disobey a direct order. The thought just blew me away.

My Colony was still getting over the major scares of my close call and Liam's absence. Valkyrie hunched in her corner of the crate, eyes closed. She had just gotten back from a test, a grueling physical one. She would probably sleep for a while. But I couldn't sleep. I played with a strip of white fabric I had pulled off my shirt, unable to move or think or rest. I felt like I was stuck in limbo. The whole situation was driving me crazy. My mind was turning in circles over and over again, and the pure simple fact that I had about half an inch of personal space was slowly tipping me over the edge.

My keen hearing picked up noise. I sat up straighter and listened hard. About 30 seconds later, five robots and a single mutant marched down our hall. The robots opened the crate directly to the right of Abe's (and so two down from mine) and chucked the girl in. She looked beaten. Not physically; her eyes weren't blacked and her lip wasn't split. She looked as if she had given up. Her eyes were big and sad, and she hardly even flinched as her body crumpled against the cold metal bars. It got me down just looking at her. Then she turned on her side, facing away from Abe, and I saw her wings. _Her wings. _Her brown and white _feathered_ wings.

_"They say her wings are beautiful, brown fledged with white like an American eagle's…" _I heard the soft voice of the recombinant who had told me about the Flock, though that particular mutant had died a long time ago. Maximum Ride was here. A jolt of adrenaline ran through my system. I wondered if Jeb knew, if he would release her. And maybe… Maybe then she would release us.

But my attention was jerked away from Max as another body was wrestled down the hall. I craned my neck, pressing my face against the bars. It was him. Liam. I clenched my teeth, clenching and unclenching my fists. He appeared unhurt, lacking even bruises or scrapes. His face had the same downcast expression as hers. It scared me. Liam was always strong, physically and mentally, like an unflinching wall of stone. To see him broken like that wormed fear into my brain.

As usual, my fear and worry came out as rage. "What the hell were you thinking, Liam?!" I screamed, my agitated voice sending every unstable recombinant into a fit of panic. Around the cage-rattling and anxious bellowing, I heard Liam say, "I'm sorry." He couldn't even look at me as the robots slammed his cage door shut. I snarled and threw myself against the bars, pleasure filling me when he flinched. He deserved it.

In the crate with Liam, Stella wrapped her arms around his chest and squirmed into his lap. Tears ran silently from her gray eyes. I sucked in my breath hard, forcing myself to back off. The kids were worried about him. Heck, _I _was worried about him. We had to let Liam settle back in and then he could tell us what they had done to him.

And then there was _her. _Maximum Ride. Huddled, unmoving against the side of her cage as she was, I figured that an Eraser would be more helpful than she would be on the premise of escape.

Yes. Escape. Now that I knew the exact location of every member of my Colony, nothing was going to stop me from getting us out. I knew I was going insane in this cage, and the little kids had better things to do than watch me go crazy. Once we were out, Blaze could play with all the fire he wanted. Jag could buy new aviator goggles. Stella could play with Abe, her big brother, and he could teach her more about the night sky than I would ever be able to. Valkyrie could get a new sketchbook and draw- anything and everything, whenever she wants to. She doesn't think anyone knows that she has a passion for sketching, but Liam and I have seen her at it- and she's amazing. Broda could have a real childhood- maybe not with real parents, but with his family, flying every day and learning how to survive our hectic lives.

I needed to get out. That much was for certain. But I had no idea how. And just then, I was pretty much unable to start planning, because a long, gleaming needle stuck through the bars of my crate and punctured my leg, sending my thoughts spiraling into blackness…


	5. Chapter 5: The Game

**Author's Note: Okay, my dear readers. I have a warning for you. Max will be a little less witty and a little more OOC in this chapter, but this is because she's still slightly stunned about what she and Liam did. Plus, fighting off creepy mutants alongside another said mutant is a bit frightening. :D Sorry if you don't like this chapter. But if you do, (or even if you didn't!), I would appreciate you telling me so. I worked so hard on this chapter, and I can tell you now that it is nice and long, just how they're supposed to be. I deserve a good, multi-review treat for this one, I think. The review button is calling you. You know it is…**

**~jennedy~**

I woke up with my face pressed against topsoil. Immediately, I leapt to my feet and prepared to be attacked. But no one was there. I was in a forest, alone. A bad feeling churned in the pit of my stomach, and I looked up to the sky. Cutting off my escape was a huge dome made out of razor wire, 500 feet off the ground at its highest point. I felt panic rising in my throat and clenched my eyes shut, slowly counting to ten to calm myself. I had definitely been here before.

Keeping my eyes closed, I made a small coughing click in the back of my throat. My keen hearing picked up the echoes of the sound that were bouncing off everything in my path. In a strange, indescribable way, I could "see" where the trees were, where each stump and root twisted its gnarled way across the forest floor. And then, as I scanned the forest floor, I saw her, crumpled on the ground about 50 feet away just as I had been a few seconds previously.

My eyes shot open, colors flooding back into my perception. Even if her dark blond hair and pretty features hadn't given her away, the white School "uniform" would have. Her wings were clearly visible, tucked against her back without a t-shirt or jacket to cover them. Maximum Ride.

_Oh, God. _I thought. _Even Amy Jenkins can't be this psychotic. _I almost had an ADD moment at the thought of Amy, (Abe had updated me when the whitecoats weren't around to taser him), but I directed myself back to Max.

Quickly, checking over my shoulders to make sure I wasn't being watched, I made my way to her side. Her big, brown eyes were open, but she wasn't getting up. I squatted next to her for about ten seconds, starting to feel irritated. Was she just _ignoring_ me? When I saw her eyes flicker over my face, then stare off into the distance once more, I let my temper control me.

"Get up," I snarled, dragging her to her feet. She protested weakly, instinctively bringing her wings up and out to make herself look bigger. Much to Max's surprise, I unfolded my wings and my right wing swung at her face, the claw in its joint carving a shallow cut into her cheek.

"What the hell was that for?" she yowled, and I put my hands on my hips.

"Come on, Ride. I don't know what they did to you, but I can certainly assure you that if you don't suck it up and get it together, neither of us will survive this."

Max's mouth fell open as she took my words in and really looked at me for the first time. I had to fight not to let myself blush as she gaped at me. The white School uniform matched perfectly with my skin tone, making me look like a walking corpse. I think she half expected me to leap at her throat and suck her blood.

"Are… Are you Echo?" she whispered. I took a stumbling step back.

"How do you know my name?" I spluttered, suddenly feeling exposed. The translucent whiteness of my skin and clothing seemed to stick out painfully from the soft, earthy tones of the woods.

"Liam," Max said quietly. "They made me go with him."

"What?" I breathed. A single thought trickled through my head. _Why didn't they take me? _Was I just not good enough? Was my expiration date going to appear on the back of my neck like it had for those Erasers I had been fighting a few months ago? I shook my head rapidly, sending my hair into further chaos and flinging the bad thoughts away.

"That- That doesn't matter right now," I barked. "We need to find our objective."

Max looked at me like I was crazy. "What objective?"

I raised one eyebrow at her. "You've never played this game?" She shook her head. I groaned. "They honestly…" I bit my tongue and quelled the urge to punch a tree. "Well, Ride, here's how it goes. The School sends either its best or worst prototypes to kill us in these woods. If they're mistakes, we kill them. If they're successes, they kill us."

"What happens if they kill us?" She looked a little apprehensive, not that I could blame her.

"Then we wake up three weeks later, paralyzed and aching all over but with no physical wounds to justify it," I murmured. When I looked up to check her reaction, Max was once again wearing the Echo-is-a-crazy-vampire expression. I rolled my eyes. "Look, newbie, I play this game a lot."

"When do we start?" she asked.

"The correct question is, when do _they _start." My head snapped to the side as a twig snapped about 100 meters to the left. "And I believe the answer is _now._"

~~~~INVISIBLE LINE~~~~

I froze as Echo stared into the dark forest, her bat's hearing picking up what I couldn't see. It made every nerve in my body stand on end to trust someone I had just met, but I really had no choice. The strange recombinant seemed to have some inkling of what was happening, while I had no clue.

She made a clicking noise in the direction the sound had come from, swore quietly, and pointed to the sky. I nodded, at least understanding this point. Echo wanted an up and away.

"One," she whispered, rocking on the balls of her feet. I heard a rustle in the bushes, and then an earsplitting, feral screech. An enormous slate gray wildcat leapt out of nowhere and bounded towards us. "Two, three!" Echo yelped, and we were gone, rocketing into the air above the treetops as the cat yowled and slashed its paws at the air beneath our shoeless feet.

Echo brushed her white hair out of her eyes. "Well. That's a new one," she commented, watching the wildcat's body contort as it shifted back into a human form. His hair was the same gray color his fur had been, and his skin was pale, even if was nothing compared to Echo's.

"Are there usually any flying mutants?" I asked. Hopefully nothing would be able to reach us up here.

"Sometimes," she replied nonchalantly, scanning the ground for more enemies. "Usually they just shoot me out of the sky if I stay up here too long."

"Shoot you out of the-" All of a sudden, there was a loud bang from the building that surrounded the forest on all sides. I had been unable to see it from the ground, but from up here it was hard to miss. A bullet whizzed past my ear, and Echo sighed sarcastically.

"Just when I was getting comfortable." Motioning for me to follow her, Echo dived back into the tries, ducking around branches and nearly crashing about… oh, let's say a hundred times. I followed her, a bit slower due to the sanity that the batkid apparently lacked. We landed on the edge of a steep embankment. Echo was holding perfectly still, looking like a mirage in the flickering, filtered light cascading through the trees.

"Do you hear anything?" I hissed. She nodded, closing her emerald eyes and folding her paper-white brow in concentration.

I waited for a few moments. "You know, I would like some sort of warning this time," I whispered.

"It's right here. I just can't…" Echo paused, her eyes opening wide with fear. "Stay!" she ordered, shoving me into a bramble. I yelped and was about to chew her out when a large, olive green reptilian creature clambered down from a tree and took a slow, luxurious gait towards Echo. I noted the roiling masses of sinew under its leathery skin, and knew that this thing could move faster than it was going.

I stood up slowly, planning to creep up behind it and… well, I don't know. Jump on its head repeatedly? As of now, that was my best course of action. Echo slowly backed away, nodding to me as she saw what I was doing. She stopped and crouched down slightly to spring up into the air. The lizard hissed, and I saw its long leg muscles tighten as it watched her readying for escape.

"NO!" I screamed, but Echo leapt into the air anyway. The lizard sprang, wrapping its long, crushing forelegs around her. With a startled cry, she fell out of the air… and over the lip of the steep, craggy rise we had been standing on. I had to look away as Echo and the Ginormous, Monstrous Thing slid, bounced, and rolled all the way down the hill, flying through thorn bushes and over sharp rocks as they went. I braced myself to jump over the small cliff and fly after them, but just as I was about to go, a small, clammy hand clamped around one of mine.

I won't lie. I screamed bloody murder. I turned around to deck the person who was holding me. Before my fist connected with his jaw, I heard a whimper and another tiny hand came up to shield a small, thin face. I pulled my punch back. There was a sniffle, and the boy burst into loud, attention-grabbing tears.

I frantically patted his back, hoping he would shut up before some other freaky recombinant decided to come see what the fuss was about. "Sorry, sorry… It's okay, shhh…" His crying slowly subsided, and he wiped his nose on a dirty sleeve. His skin had a corpselike grayish pallor that was coated in filth. Tears had run thin, spidery tracks down his grimy cheeks, which were too thin for a boy who could be no more than Gazzy's age.

"What's your name?" I asked as he shivered and hugged himself, looking about as comfortable as a fox alone in a chicken coop with a gun-toting farmer.

"K- Karan," he mumbled, shuffling his feet in the leaves that coated the ground.

"What are you doing out here?" At this question, tears started pouring from his eyes once more. They were strange eyes- a deep, seductive sort of scarlet-mahogany. They were beautiful. I caught myself staring into them, and then snapped myself back to the present. What on earth was I doing, ogling at some kid's eyes?

"The white-coat men made me come out here," Karan sniffled. "And then the boy-wolf scratched me." I looked down, and saw a patch of wet redness soaking his left pants leg. Karan was determinedly leaning on his other leg, but I could see him swaying tiredly. My throat closed up. Who would force a child into this kind of thing?

"Let's get you somewhere safe," I said kindly, holding out my hand. He took it, looking up at me like I was his guardian angel. As soon as I did so, I realized that I had no idea where I was going. "Hey Karan… Do you know a safe place around here?"

The scrawny little thing nodded his head eagerly, tugging on my hand. "This way, Max!" he chirped. At the time, I didn't even stop to think why he knew my name. I just let him pull me through the woods. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

We had been walking for about five minutes when, with a pang of guilt, I remembered Echo. And the Ginormous Monstrous Lizard Thing. And the cliff. "Oh crap. Karan, we have to go back."

"But why?" he whimpered, looking terrified again.

"I have this friend, and I think she's in trouble." Karan trained his weird red-brown eyes on me, and the whole forest around him shimmered out of my focus.

"We have to get to safety, Max. Echo will meet us there," he said quietly.

"But-"I argued feebly. Then, slowly, like darkness settling over a valley, I began to understand his reasoning. The reddish tint to his eyes bored into me. "Okay. Let's go."

He pulled me onward, silent and sure. I may have imagined it, but it seemed like his tiny hand gripped my hand with a strange ferocity. My whole body began to feel tired, fatigue working its way into every muscle like a parasite. I stumbled after Karan like a dog, asleep on my feet and too much so to argue about our path.

"How much farther?" I gasped, skidding to a halt in the dead leaves. Karan stopped reluctantly and turned to look at me for the first time in a good while. I was starting to feel irritated; the way a grizzly bear is irritated when it is rudely awoken after its hibernation.

"We're almost there," Karan said with certainty. He smiled at me, his little gray face lifting my spirits slightly. I felt like I was falling into his eyes, falling into them and swimming there as calmly and comfortably as a fish in the blackest of deep ocean waters. Karan's slightly pointed teeth gleamed, and he continued onward.

Sure enough, within minutes he was dragging me up a small hill, urging me on with the promise of a permanent rest within minutes. Embedded in the hill was the mouth of an enormous cave with ceilings at least thirty feet high. It was as black as pitch inside, and though I was scared to death at the thought of not being able to see, one comforting glance of Karan's glistening eyes quelled my fears.

The scruffy child led me about one hundred and fifty feet back into the cavern, around a corner so the light could no longer dig its fingers into our shelter. Karan settled into a niche in the floor and began scraping 2 stones together until a spark flickered and caught on a pile of wood that had already been assembled. I didn't even wonder how it had gotten that way. I spent those few minutes marveling at the beauty of the fire's reflection in his eyes.

Suddenly, Karan straightened up, in a very similar way to- To someone, I thought weakly, I had known once. My muddled brain couldn't quite remember who. "What is it?" I heard myself ask.

"A bad person is coming," whispered the boy. "They want to hurt us." I nodded rapidly, understanding his wishes immediately.

"I'll stand at the corner and be ready to attack," I mumbled in monotone.

"Yes, you will," Karan said firmly, but I head the tremor of fear in his voice, even if I didn't pay it any attention.

After a few seconds of crouching in the darkness in wait, I could hear the person approaching. They were limping slightly, one foot dragging heavily on the ground as they walked, and I could hear their shallow, labored breathing. They approached the corner. I felt a rational though slide through the haze that blanketed my mind: What if the person wasn't bad? What if they were just hurt?

I looked up at Karan, and he glared at me, the red in his eyes sharpening and flashing in the firelight. Pain blossomed behind my eyelids, and I fought not to cry out. Within milliseconds, I was once again braced to murder the person staggering around the corner.

They rounded the bend, and I jumped out, fists coming down towards her head. But somehow, she was quicker than I was. "Max! What the-"She yelped, jumping back and up, glossy white bat wings flapping frantically to get above me. I growled and sprang up in the air, latching onto her ankle.

She shrieked in pain, and I knew that the foot I clutched was fractured, perhaps broken. I yanked on it viciously and she moaned in agony, but miraculously stayed in the air. Karan stood in front of his fire, eyes practically blazing, a mahogany-scarlet inferno.

"Land, Echo," he ordered, and the authority in his tone was unmistakable. The intruder shook her head and gritted her teeth through the pain, her canines biting through her tongue and sending blood spilling over her bottom lip. A droplet of blood splattered on my forehead and I flinched, the warm wetness startling me. What on earth was I doing?

Echo kicked feebly at my hand, pain twisting her white face. "Max… Why are you doing this? Max!" I took a moment and actually thought about it. Why was I doing this? Well, obviously because Karan wanted me to. But what had Karan ever done for me? He had taken me to this nice cave… But Echo had saved me from a wolf-kid, sniper fire, _and _a Ginormous Freaky Lizard Thing. And Echo was… through the confusion of Karan's hold on me, I struggled for the word. Echo was… my friend?

I let go of her foot. With a gasp of relief, she soared over head and dove down at Karan like a blade of muscle and air, kicking him in the chest with her good foot and sending him sprawling to the ground. As I hurried over, she crouched on his chest and delivered a solid right hook to his temple, leaving him out for the count.

I helped Echo up, supporting her weight on myself instead of forcing it onto her injured foot. "I'm so sorry, Echo," I whispered. "I had no idea what he… what _it _was."

She nodded, wiping her bloody mouth on the back of her hand. "It- It's okay," she muttered. I allowed her to put her arm around my shoulder as we lurched slowly out of the cave, sitting down just outside the mouth to rest and survey Echo's injuries. Her whole left foot, from her ankle to her toes, was puffy and swollen out of proportion. I was afraid to touch it after what I had done earlier, so I left it for a later date and moved on. Her whole back was flayed from rolling down the hill with the lizard creature, but the blood trickling out of it wasn't flowing very fast, so I patched a couple strips of my t-shirt to it and left it to heal.

Once I was done, I looked back into the cave. There was no sign that Karan was awake, but if he was, we were in trouble. The control he had held over me had come to him so easily, it was frightening. He scared me more than any other recombinant I had ever met. "We need to get out of here."

Echo nodded. She stood up slowly, unable to lean on her left foot. Again, I held her up as we moved onward into the forest. "Whoa," I grunted as she tripped over a root and nearly fell. "Do we need to stop?" Echo shook her head fiercely, but I could see her biting her already bleeding tongue again.

I stopped walking. "It's no use going on if you're going to pass out on me the second I need you." Echo's dark emerald eyes glared daggers at me, but I refused to budge. She moved away from me and leaned on a tree trunk for support.

"We have to keep moving," she hissed. "If we can defeat a few more beasties, they might let us out!"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be slaying mutants left and right with that lovely, black-and-blue foot of yours." Echo looked downright ready to murder me, and I think she would have if not for the large, bloated monstrosity dangling from her ankle. "Echo… When do they usually let you go?"

"After a few days," she whispered, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the tree. Echo looked so worn, that I felt my heart ache for her.

"Be smart, batkid. You'll never make it for another day if you don't rest. And then what will your Colony do?" Echo groaned, and I could feel her giving in.

"How do you know about them, Max? You know too much…" I forced a laugh.

"I could say the same about you." There was a silence that lasted several seconds as Echo mulled over her options.

"Fine. We'll stop. But only for a few hours!" Grinning broadly, I slid down onto the leaves and felt relief flood my painfully tense muscles. Seated, I noticed for the first time that my feet were cut and bleeding from walking with Karan without shoes. But for now, the pain was numbed, so I ignored it.

Echo sighed deeply, finally calm. She closed her eyes and appeared to start dozing almost immediately.

Then a scream pierced the air. Echo nearly had a panic attack due to her enhanced hearing, but even I could hear it, and the desperation sent chills down my spine. Echo scrambled to her feet, her face taking a tinge of green as all of her weight came crashing down on her injured foot.

"Who was that?" I asked nervously, her panic penetrating my previous state of peace.

"Stella," she gasped, limping as fast as she could towards the sound. "That was Stella."


	6. Chapter 6: The Reunited

**Author's Note: Again, it's been a while since the last chapter. *scratchers head* Sorry, I've had a tough couple weeks. I know this chapter isn't very action-y and won't make up for the lapse very well. Anyway. Here you are. But at this point in my author's note that you're probably ignoring, I have to quote from a fellow author on this site, manicDROID- "To my silent readers: BOO YOU. Read and review. It's what you would want."**

**I'm not sure what's going through your heads, but I'd probably have more of an inclination to update if you would review. **

**That being said, here's the chapter.**

**~jennedy~**

I spread my wings and flapped, sending me leaping through the air before I coasted to the ground, took a few painful steps, and repeated the process. Stella was in danger, and I was wounded. Internally, I cursed myself about a million times as I slowly gusted my way towards the sound of her scream.

Max followed me, but I ignored her. Honestly, I don't know what I thought of that bird kid. If she hadn't been lured off by that creepy little mind-controller, then I wouldn't be so far away from Stella, and I probably would be able to walk, too. But this was Maximum Ride, practically my counterpart in her own strange, avian way. And I could easily see how I was blaming her for everything that I hated in the sick, twisted School.

No time to think. I shrugged off my confusion and focused on the short, anguished yelps and cries that were rapidly getting louder. Midway into one of my leaps, my broken foot caught on a tree root and I dropped like a rock. Stars burst behind my eyes, and I almost whimpered, but then Max leapt over me and started sprinting towards Stella, and I found the will to pull myself up and shakily keep moving.

Max lunged in front of Stella just as a fist came down and clocked her in the jaw. Her eyes rolled, and her attacker launched one final punch into her ribs to bring her down, gasping. The mutant standing over Max looked surprisingly normal. She looked about 16 years old, with average light brown hair and clear blue eyes. What was so special about her? The girl was strong, of course. You had to be pretty strong to deck Maximum Ride. But that couldn't be it, because Liam could have hit the girl about four times as hard, and he wasn't even designed for strength.

"Speak of the devil," I groaned as Liam dove through the canopy of the forest and tackled the girl from behind. Or, rather, ran into her as hard as possible in an attempt to tackle her. Instead, there was a bad sounding clang and Liam yelled in pain as he collided with her. The girl grabbed his wrist and threw a round-house kick at the side of his head. He caught her foot before it touched his ear and twisted, sending her crashing to the ground.

Liam smiled, sensing his victory, and brought his fist down to punch her face in. His knuckles hit her nose with a metallic clank. The girl grinned triumphantly as Liam yelped and clutched his hand to his chest. I could see slivers of white bone between his tan fingers, and knew he was hurt.

I stepped forward to join the fight, and would have crumpled to the ground if Stella hadn't been there for me to lean on. "You're hurt, Echo," she said. "You've fractured several of your metatarsals. You can't fight yet." Though I was relieved that she was well enough to diagnose me, the part about being fractured was not good news.

"Fine," I grumbled. "But let _me_ look at _you_, Stell." She allowed me to check her over, even though she probably already knew the exact severity of her wounds. She had purple bruises up and down her arms, probably from the girl's fingers. Stella's left eye was black, and she had a long, painfully fresh cut on her upper arm and shoulder.

Stella ironed her smile in place as I ran my fingers down the gash. "Well, Val will only have to give me 22 stitches for that," she chirped, as if the news was good.

I scowled as the sounds of Max and Liam getting their butts handed to them trailed into my ears. "Stella, I'm just going to-"

Stella pursed her lips, somehow seeming motherly at the tender age of six. "You can't fight, Echo." Her face lit up in a smile. "But Blaze and Jag can!" I whirled around as more members of my Colony rushed into the clearing, called by Liam and Max's obvious distress.

Blaze immediately took a flying leap (literally) and ended up with his arms around the strange, iron-skinned girl's neck, holding onto her ears and cackling like a maniac as she spun in circles to dislodge him. Jag stood behind her and kicked the backs of her knees, buckling them and sending her sprawling.

I whooped loudly as the girl disappeared in a writhing mass of Colony (plus one angry birdkid). Suddenly, a voice cried out from the trees, and a small girl with blond hair and white, feathered wings dove towards the dog pile. "MAX!"

thereshouldbealineherebuthegoddarnedfanfictionformatwontletitshowupsoiguessthiswillhavetodo

Angel was calling me.

I shot out of the throng of mutants and ran to her, laughing and crying at the same time as she buried her face in my shoulder. "Angel… You're okay, you're okay…"

"Max, who are they?" she asked. "The one I found isn't very talkative, and all he thinks about is finding someone called 'Stella'…" An astoundingly tall teenager with curly brown hair and silver-black wings dropped through the canopy, snapping in his enormous wings early to avoid catching them on branches. The little girl to whom Echo had been talking darted into his embrace.

"I don't know, Angel. They're like us, but they're bats. I think… Well, Liam said that the tall one was Abe. I guess that girl is his sister, Stella." Her blue eyes widened.

"Like Gazzy and me? He's a lot bigger than Gazzy." I nodded in response. The Colony was finishing off the indestructible wonder. When Echo tried to hobble towards me, her foot gave out, and Abe swung her up into his arms like a baby. She blushed so red it was as if he had splashed her with scarlet paint.

Before she could open her mouth, Blaze jabbered, "We're onleh missin' Val and Broda, Ek." In his high pitched voice, the accent sounded so out of place that I nearly cracked up laughing, but I managed to restrain myself.

Echo smiled. "I know. How did you all…?"

"They took us right after they took you," Abe remarked in a deep voice. Echo gritted her teeth, her thin body shaking with anger.

"Why can't they just leave you guys out of it?" she hissed, struggling to get out of Abe's arms. The corner of his mouth twitched as he restrained her, his long arms trapping her effortlessly. "Stoppit, Abe, that's not funny." He let her scramble down from his arms, though she leaned heavily on him to keep herself standing.

Liam chuckled quietly, earning himself a glare from Echo. Jag tugged on Liam's arm, pointing at the sky. A black shape coasted down through the trees, silent as the grave. For a moment, I thought it was Fang, and my heart soared.

"Val! Thank God!" Echo yelled. The girl landed her long black hair billowing around her shoulders, and folded her black bat wings across her back. Clinging to her neck was a small boy, golden-haired and scared half to death. Valkyrie strode calmly to us, her face blank and passive. The little boy squirmed out of her arms and ran to Echo. She scooped him up and clutched him against her shoulder, rocking back and forth and whispering comfort in his ear.

It was as if the whole Colony drew a deep breath and relaxed. They smiled wanly, took each other in, and for those few seconds just focused on being together and partially free.

"Hi," said Stella to Angel, smiling broadly.

"Hi," Angel replied. "I'm Angel."

"I know," said Stella. "You probably already read my mind, but my name is-"

"Stella Luna," chirped Angel. "But your Colony mostly calls you Stella." Angel beamed at me, obviously excited to have found a playmate almost as psychic as she was. I winked back.

Echo swung the little boy, who she introduced to me as Broda, to her hip, and looked to the sky. The giant razor wire dome was glinting faintly in the fading sun. Longing filled Echo's face. I imagined grabbing Angel and flying away, slipping right through the cage the School had around us and just leaving.

Then I mentally smacked myself. For the time being, at least, we weren't going anywhere. Echo couldn't walk independently. Stella was bleeding heavily from a cut in her arm. Liam's hand was mangled and useless, and he was in very obvious pain. I caught Valkyrie scowling, as if she wished she had the supplies to mend up her Colony.

Then Angel stiffened beside me.

"What's up, baby?" I asked. Her eyes were shining with joy as she looked up towards something I couldn't see.

"The Flock!" she yelled happily. "They're right above the dome!"


End file.
